Free Republic

The U.S. is shipping four additional HIMARS launchers to Ukraine as part of its latest package of military assistance to counter Russia. It will include artillery ammunition and rockets and be the 16th drawdown of firepower from the Pentagon’s own inventory since last August. Ukraine will have 16 HIMARS from the U.S. and four more rocket launchers from other allied countries...Proxy officials working on Moscow’s behalf will arrange sham referendums on joining Russia, officials said. “Russia is attempting to set the conditions on the ground by seeking to establish branches of Russian banks, to establish the ruble as the default...

WASHINGTON -- Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee says it is "unfounded" for anyone to say he has alienated the Mormon community or that he used rival Mitt Romney's LDS faith as a wedge issue. ... Huckabee said he would have concern if anyone said he had estranged the Mormon community. ... "Anyone who says that I have this anti-Mormon prejudice is absolutely off the mark," Huckabee said. "And it has no basis whatsoever." Some Mormon Republicans, though, say Huckabee ran a campaign playing off the concern some Protestant evangelicals have for Mormons, viewed as heretical by some groups. Some evangelicals do...